Volkswagen might be considering introducing a unibody pickup based on the Atlas three-row crossover within the U.S. market. The news sprang out of the 2017 Detroit auto show in January when CarBuzz talked with VW North America’s chief engineering officer, Dr. Matthias Erb. And while Volkswagen has yet to confirm or deny its intentions toward an Atlas-based pickup, we decided to generate a rendering of what it might look like.
The Atlas-based truck (we’ll just call it the Atlas Truck) would be squarely aimed at the Honda Ridgeline. Like the Pilot on which it’s based, the Ridgeline retains the SUV’s unibody construction, transverse engine arrangement, and crossover-like driving characteristics. Volkswagen would surely follow this same game plan, using its Atlas SUV as the mechanical and design inspiration for a mid-sized, unibody pickup.
Volkswagen and Dr. Erb know full-size, body-on-frame pickups dominate the American pickup market from the traditional domestic automakers. Breaking into that territory is tough, as evidenced by the lukewarm sales figures of Nissan’s new Titan pickup. He told CarBuzz: "More than 80 percent of trucks in the U.S. are full-size. Three main automakers own this segment: Ford, GM, and Ram. They’re not just about to let someone else invade their turf.”
So rather than tackling the full-size pickup segment, VW would be smart to compete against the Ridgeline. As for sales, the new-for-2017 Ridgeline is doing extremely well, having nearly doubled sales in just the last few months in 2016 since its next-best year in 2008.
So what would an Atlas Truck look like? Keep reading for our speculation.
from Top Speed http://ift.tt/2kr8IdW
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